Let me introduce myself. I'm 100% Korean and was born in Korea but have lived in the U.S for quite a few years. I moved back to Korea at the age of 14 (or 15 in the Korean age system) and have been living here for about 5 years now. I attended a little bit of middle school and all of high school here, so my chapter is going to be mainly on school life in Korea.

But let's get some basics down first, shall we?

Now, I'm sure a few of you were turning heads when I mentioned the Korean age system above so allow me to explain. In Korea, you are one year old from the moment you are born because people count the time you were developing inside your mom as around one year. Also, people gain one year of age as soon as it's the new year, not when it's your birthday. That's why I'm technically 18 right now but in Korea I have to say I'm 20. It's also how I am legally allowed to drink alcohol now even though my 19th birthday has not passed yet, probably like the only good thing about this age system xD.

Language: The official language of Korea is Korean (I think that one's pretty obvious) and we use a writing system called Hangeul which is one of the easiest languages to learn from what I hear. While we do learn some Chinese characters as a mandatory class in school, it's not really necessary to know any of them to speak/write the Korean language. Although, I should note that many words in Korean are derived from Chinese characters, or Hanja as it's called here, such as the word for 'recording' which uses two characters that both mean record . As such, some words are pretty similar in Japanese and Chinese which also use Chinese Characters. For example, the word for promise is read as kind of similar in Japanese which is .

Also, teens and young adults tend to shorten a lot of phrases especially when texting. For example, ((I) have to charge my bus card) becomes and (Happy Birthday) becomes . I guess I should also add what Koreans use to express laughter in text. We use a lot of which is like the letter in English. So if something's funny, you just have to put a bunch of ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. The more the funnier xD.

Food Culture: From being a vegetarian for a year, I've learned that it's pretty difficult to be vegetarian/vegan in Korea. What can I say? Koreans really love to eat meat. You'll probably see some kind of barbeque or chicken place around the corner wherever you go. Some popular dishes are galbi, samgyeopsal, and bulgogi.

Now besides that, Koreans tend to socialize a lot around eating. When you meet a friend or family, you usually ask if they've eaten anything yet almost as if it was a greeting. That's usually the first thing I ask my mom and what she asks me when I come home from school or work. Not to mention, eating together with your friends is a big part of socializing here and something you'll probably do a lot whenever you meet friends.

Lastly, please, enough with the "Koreans eat dogs." Although there was a time when Koreans did eat dogs just because of the shortage of food, nowadays, most people won't dare to touch it. That isn't to say that dog restaurants don't exist anymore. They still do but in small and shrinking numbers.

Transportation: Transportation is amazing here. You really don't need to drive in Korea just because you can get practically anywhere by bus or subway. Not to mention, there are a lot of taxis, sometimes just lined out at the sides of streets especially in busy areas.

Currency: Korea uses Won(원) . We have coins for , (, @, and @. And we use paper money for @0, @0, @00, and @00. Roughly @0 is equivalent to $1.

And if I'm talking about Korea, I guess I can't leave out K-pop. K-pop is essentially Korean pop music for the few that don't know. It's recently been getting a lot of worldwide fans. There are too many K-pop groups to name and they seem to be multiplying by the minute...(I was recently shocked to see new groups with members that are now my age or younger. It makes me feel like I'm getting old. :( ) A few notable ones would be Girl's Generation, Big Bang, Exo, 2NE1, Beast, Shinee, etc. Although, I should note that not all Koreans are into K-pop (myself included).

Now, let's actually get into school life in Korea. Mainly, high school.

Having lived in America for most of my life, I was shocked at how different the schools here were. I guess the first big change was having to wear a school uniform which unfortunately meant wearing a skirt I so dreaded. Also, you have to wear separate shoes for inside and outside school.

When it comes to classes here, we don't change classrooms, the teachers do. Everyone stays in one classroom and has all (well most) classes together. So if you don't like your classmates, you kind of have to suck it up for a year.

I often heard a lot of stereotypes of Asians studying really hard and being super smart in American. And it's partially true. Never in my life have I been forced to sit at a desk for 10+ hours every day and study. Now first and second year of high school isn't too bad with the studying. Actually, the second years have it the best in my opinion because they are the ones to have the most "power" among the three grades. Pretty much, high school goes something like this.

First year: "I'm a high schooler now! I should start studying really hard for the college exams from now on. Wow those upperclassmen look kind of scary. Avoid, avoid, avoid!"

Second year: "I worked hard trying to be a good high schooler last year and avoid getting into trouble with the upperclassmen. Now it's my turn to be in charge of the school. Studying? I'm going to be doing a ton of it next year. Let's take it easy for a year."

Third year: "*Suneung D-300...D-200...D-100...I think I'm studying...kind of...Am I doing this right?...Oh, I'm hopeless...Hey, first and second years, we're a part of the school, too. Don't forget about us!"

"Shut up, you had your year of fun already. Now, go study!" –Second years (Okay, maybe they don't say it exactly like that but I hope you get the point.)

Now this is what third years are like before *Suneung. After, it's a bit different.

Third year after *Suneung: "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'M GONNA BURN ALL OF THESE TEXTBOOKS!!!"

"We can't have you guys in the school anymore. You all are a nuisance to the first and second years. We're going to send you guys on a bunch of meaningless trips to the local park so you guys can pick up trash." –Teachers (I'm not even kidding about the park and trash thing. This is literally what my school did after *Suneung...)

*Suneung is what we call the college entrance exam here. Equivalent of the SAT.

School lunches: One of the most surprising things when I started school here (that really shouldn't have been all that surprising now that I think about it) is the fact students eat their lunches with chopsticks. Yes, I'm aware chopsticks are the official eating utensils of most Asian countries.

Most students, if not all, eat the school lunches. Very few people bring lunches to school anymore. There are separate cafeterias (at least in my school and most other high schools) for each grade so everyone eats lunch at the same time. Lunch is usually about an hour, so after eating, students either return to class or go outside to play soccer or take a walk around the school. Might I add, a lot of students brush their teeth in school after eating.

School dinners: Yes, schools give you dinner here, too! That's because students are allowed to stay in school until 10 pm (used to be 11~12pm just a few years ago) to study at night.

That brings me to yaja ( shortened for 야간 자율 학습. Remember when I said Koreans like to shorten everything.) This is the time after school when students stay to study. I skipped out a lot during my first and second year. However, during my third year, I stayed until 10pm every single day. That means I stayed in school from 8am to 10pm five days a week, studying something I'll probably never use in my life. Now, since I wasn't the smartest student (as in I didn't make it in the top 20% or whatever), I was allowed to skip out on yaja without much consequences. That can't be said for the smart students. They are pretty much forced to stay until 10pm at least four days a week to do extra-curricular activities that the school assigns and study even harder...The thing about Korean schools that unfortunately has yet to fully disappear, is the fact that they would rather focus on making smart students smarter, rather than improving students who need the improvement.

The grading system: Koreans don't use the typical "90~100 is an A, 80~89 is a B..." type of grading. They use a comparative grading system. This means the grading changes according to how well the student does compared to other students. The top 4% scores are an A, next 7% is a B and so on. This means, it is impossible for everyone to get an A. Because of this, problems arise especially on the Suneung when an A is a perfect score of 100 because everyone does well on it.

Entering College: Trying to go to college is kind of like...making a dangerous and tiring journey through a dark forest then climbing a steep mountain to find some hidden cave in order to slay the fire-breathing dragon that's like 100 times bigger than you. In other words, ridiculously difficult. This is mainly because the Suneung really REALLY sucks. Let me further elaborate. Like I mentioned, Korea uses a comparative grading system and they like to study really hard. Thus, in order to get an A on most subjects, you need to get a 100 or at most get only one or two questions wrong. This can't happen for everyone, unfortunately. So some students might score an 85, which is still pretty high, but get a C or D just because other students got higher scores. Colleges focus more on the grades than the original score so even if you get an 85, if your grade is low, chances are you won't be getting into the college you want.

Now what happens if you can't get into any colleges during your third year? Don't worry! There's always jaesu . Jaesu is when you take another year to study and prepare for the next exam in the following year. Of course, not all students are able to get in on their second try either. So there are people who spend 3+ years getting into a good college. This can take a big psychological toll on a person, having to study the exact same thing for so long. That's why every year there are students who commit suicide rather than doing another year of jaesu. Sad, but it's true.

Before I get into the next topic, there's something you should know about most Koreans. Koreans have a tendency to try to improve their disadvantages rather than enhancing their advantages. They try to study hard and be good at everything or rather their parents want them to be. This is why private academies are so popular. There's a private academy or hakwon for almost every subject: Math, Korean, and we can't forget about English! Parents often feel obligated to send their child to one of these academies because everyone else does it. Seriously, it's hard to find one student who hasn't been to a hakwon before.

While we're on this topic, I should address the English subject in Korea. Korean parents are very big on making sure their child can learn English as early as possible, pretty much as soon as they start learning Korean. They send their young children (some still in kindergarten) to English academies after school. I actually work in one of these English academies and it kind of breaks my heart seeing these small kids after school being forced to memorize the differences between "there", "they're", and "their" instead of going out and having fun like a child should.

This doesn't mean Koreans are exceptionally good at speaking English. Most actually aren't very good at all or even confident in their English skills. Ironic, right? The thing is, Korean students are mainly good at grammar. (-.-) They're probably better than the typical American student. But when it comes to speaking, it's a whole other story.

I guess last, I'd like to talk about something that personally really bothers me and that's the lack of creativity that is used in school. Most classes mainly involve a teacher speaking and the students listening. There's not much discussion or a lot of creative activities during school. This is especially true for third years. Teachers often think doing those activities is a waste of time and focus more on preparing the students for the Suneung. Even art and music classes aren't very creative around here.

The only opportunity you can really get with being creative is during the school festivals. But even that was not all that interesting in my school. This is when each club in the school presents something they have prepared for the year and students can get a chance to perform in front of everyone. I'll have to admit, my high school festival was awful. We were forced to stay in school until 9pm to watch all of the performances. Don't get me wrong. At first, I was pretty excited. But as time passed and it got darker outside, I only wanted one thing: to go home. I even fell asleep in the middle of the performances. Of course, this situation doesn't apply to all schools. There are schools with very fun and diverse activities and performances for their festivals. Just not my school...

Okay. I feel like this is now becoming more of a rant about my high school. So I'll end it here.

I hopethis helps anyone trying to write about a Korean high schooler and maybe eventaught you a few things about my country. If you have any further questions,please message me @sallhwa0314. :)